President Donald Trump signed a major Dodd-Frank rollback into law Thursday, hoping to bring regulatory relief to community banks across the U.S. The president explained Dodd-Frank’s costly regulations gave large banks a negative advantage at the cost of small banks throughout the country. Click the headline to read more.

HW TECH100™ Program Overview

Does your company offer innovative technology solutions for the U.S. housing industry?

That’s the essence of the annual HW TECH100™ competition, and part of what sets this competition apart from any other is that it's the only effort to assess the technology landscape spanning all of the U.S. housing economy: residential mortgage lending, servicing, and investments; and real estate technology.

Eligibility & Criteria

Firms need meet the following basic criteria to apply for submmission to the HW TECH100™:

Offer technology and/or software that focuses on or enables one or more of the following industry sectors: residential mortgage lending, residential mortgage servicing, residential mortgage investments, or real estate.

The technology and/or software must be available to 3rd party users and/or actively marketed and sold to 3rd parties for use: this means pure play dot-coms are eligible, along with software development companies. Companies developing proprietary, in-house technology are not eligible.

The technology must be available in-market at time of application: no vaporware or pre-launches allowed.

Technology may be B2B (business-to-business) or B2C (business-to-consumer) in nature.

HousingWire editors will score each entry and work to arrive at a consensus on the final list of 100 firms, based on the information provided in the entry and any additional research. All winners will be announced publicly with the launch of the April issue of HW Magazine.

Submissions are non-transferable and non-refundable.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Our company has [more than one] software platform. Do we have to apply multiple times?

No. You only have to apply once. The HW TECH100™ program recognizes leading technology & software companies – from companies with a single offering to companies that may house ten or more different software platforms. Each company need only be nominated once; that nomination should note any software worth our consideration in assessing the nomination.

2. We've got amazing software and would love to demonstrate it to HousingWire editorial team members as part of the consideration process.

Given the volume of applications, our team members/editors cannot accept individual requests for supplementary information beyond what is included in the HW TECH100™ application itself. (You may, however, tape a product demonstration and include it in your application if you feel it will help our team members better understand your technology.)

3. We want to know if [Company X] applied. Or we'd like to know how many companies applied/were nominated.

In the past we have received more than 300 nominations for the TECH100 program. We're expecting submission to increase exponentially year after year. Beyond that, we do not disclose if individual companies have been nominated for the program, nor do we disclose how many companies have received nominations in any given year.

4. Our software is proprietary and we want to share some things in our application that are private, so we can be accurately assessed. How do we do that?

If your software is so stealthy that you don't want anyone to know what it actually does, we're pretty sure you shouldn't be competing for public industry-wide recognition for your super-secret efforts. But every year we do receive a few requests like this, so let's be clear: HousingWire is a media company, and the information you submit in a nomination is material that will be vetted – and can be published in the event the company you nominate is named to our list. No secrets here. Nothing up our sleeves.

5. The company I want to nominate doesn't advertise with HousingWire. Can they still be considered?

We get this question every year, too, from a few people – we can only surmise it's because that's how some other industry tech awards programs have worked in the past. The HW TECH100™ isn't like other industry programs.

Here's the bottom line: selection to the HW TECH100™ isn't based upon a company's advertising relationship, and we encourage all technology companies looking to make their mark to apply. In fact, the vast majority of companies named to our inaugural 2014 list were not advertisers. What we're looking to accomplish with this program is broader than that: we want to capture the most innovative companies in the industry. Period.

6. We must have missed the listed deadline. We really want to be included, but this got held up in legal/we missed it until now/it was the holidays/we had other things we were focusing on/etc. Can we still apply?

Our answer for those that miss the deadline is simple: better luck next year. We have strict deadlines to manage to, and ask that you respect the process. Bottom line: all submissions/nominations must be made prior to midnight Central time on the nomination closing date. No exceptions. No mulligans. No extensions.

7. How much does it cost to nominate?

It's absolutely free.

8. We submitted a nomination. Can we know if we made it in prior to the official announcement for planning and/or marketing purposes?

We do not disclose the companies that make our HW TECH100™ until the TECH100™ HW Magazine issue is released; and will not be disclosing any information as to who made the cut prior to that date. When each year’s award winners are announced, the business contacts at winning firms will receive notification of their inclusion as well as information to support any press statements and similar marketing measures.

This month inHousingWire magazine

He wears t-shirts to his televised interviews; not very CEO. He played sports at a high level, but rarely brings it up and when he does he talks about it as a mere chapter in his life. Honestly, who plays a Super Bowl and doesn’t describe it as the defining moment in their personal journey? Casey Crawford, that’s who. His family is a big part of his life of course, but he talks about his even larger family — his coworkers — in terms that are just as glowing.

Feature

One of the things that has bedeviled mortgage financing post-crisis has been the absence of the private label mortgage backed securities market. During the peak years, private label MBS issuance topped $1 trillion. In 2017, only $70 billion of private label RMBS were issued, although that is a big increase from 2016.

Commentary

Digital technology has disrupted businesses and industries from publishing to public transportation, so can the mortgage industry be far behind? Actually, anyone who’s applied for a mortgage recently will have recognized that things are already changing fast.